When you run a business, you’ll wear many hats. One of the most important – yet often frustratingly forgotten – is that of health and safety officer. This means you’ll need to make sure that your employees are kept safe.
Doing so avoids the risk of anyone suffering a personal injury while in the workplace. And this means you’re going to need to pay careful attention to the health and safety laws in your country and make sure they’re adhered to within your business.
Identifying risk
The first thing to do when you want to take your workforce’s health and safety seriously is to carry out a risk assessment. Identifying the potential hazards in your workplace is the first step towards helping your team avoid hurting themselves on them. Prevention is always better than cure, after all.
It can be a good idea to get your team’s opinions. They work in that environment every day and know exactly what could pose a threat to them. This means they’ll have the best insight into what should be identified in your risk assessment. They’ll also know who is most at risk, therefore giving you the list of who should feature on your risk assessment.
Reasonable actions
In most countries, you’ll be required to ensure the health and safety of your workers as far as is reasonably practicable. This means you’ll need to carefully balance the level of risk present in your workplace with the finances, time and trouble it will take to reduce the hazards.
If you can’t eliminate the hazard, you’ll have to control the risk. This could involve redesigning the job or replacing the materials, machinery or processes used. You could also provide personal protective equipment to workers – but there’s no point in doing so unless they actually use it, so you might have to monitor this.
Think further
It’s not just slips and trips, collapsing equipment or moving machinery that pose a threat to workers. Office work isn’t devoid of threats. Your company’s employees could also be at risk of health problems just from sitting at their desks.
You’ll also have to consider issues like repetitive strain injury if people sit at their workstations for long periods, as well as potential back injuries when lifting heavy objects like paper deliveries. These types of issues should also fall under the health and safety umbrella.
Take it seriously
If an injury does happen on your watch, you’re going to have to take it seriously. Make sure it gets reported in your company accident book and any other internal reporting systems. Then, depending on your local laws, you might have to report it to the authorities. Doing so shows your injured employee – and their colleagues – that your firm values their wellbeing. And this can go a long way towards maintaining good relations with your workforce.
Keep in regular contact if the injured person has to take time off work. Make sure they know that they can take the time they need to recover and that they’ll be welcomed back when they do return. Find out what they need to make their return easier and ensure you’re doing everything that eases their transition back to work.
Businesses have to be careful when it comes to health and safety. It’s hugely important to ensure people are being protected at work, so it should always be at the top of your company’s list of priorities.
